Cape Breton couple transforms cutlery into jewelry

Dwayne and Heather Day, of Treasures With Heart Jewelry, stand in front of their jewelry display at the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion on Tuesday. The company makes jewelry from cutlery and family heirlooms and sells them to customers all around the world.

SYDNEY, N.S. — A small business is Cape Breton that transforms old silverware and family heirlooms into unique and creative jewelry is now growing and reaching customers all over the world.

Treasures With Heart Jewelry was created by Heather Day, three years ago. A year earlier she was working at a physiotherapy clinic until she suffered a massive heart attack and stroke that left her without the full function of her left hand.

“When I had my recovery, I went back to get my hand working and I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to do something that I enjoy doing,’” said Day.

Day said she stumbled on a post on the website Pinterest that showed handmade jewelry made out of cutlery and a plate. After seeing the post, Day said she knew she found something she could excel at.

“I thought, ‘what is that, two spoons and a broken plate? I can do that,’ so I created this company, because everyone has silverware tucked away in the closet that they’re not using,” said Day, “Unfortunately, the kids coming up nowadays, they don’t want grandma’s silverware. What we do is we transform it into wearable jewelry.”

Over the past three years, Day’s business has grown in scale more than she thought it would. The company now does custom jewelry for people all over North America and around the world. Day said her husband, Dwayne Day, is a big reason for that. Dwayne works full-time at a local grocery store but still sets up all of Heather’s jewelry displays when the company sets up tables at the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion for tourists from cruise ships or at the Farmer’s Market in Coxheath on weekends.

Dwayne said he believed in his wife’s company since the beginning and that she has a knack for it.

“I didn’t know how far it would go, but I knew she could do it. She’s always been very gifted and creative and did crafts. She almost has a ‘MacGyver’ thing where she can do things that other people just don’t see,” he said. “Most people say they’ve seen this kind of jewelry before but not to this extent. Treasures With Heart, that’s what the business is called and you see with everything she does, she’s put her heart into it.”

Using special tools, Day takes the cutlery and other heirlooms and transforms them into everything from rings, to pendants, bracelets and necklaces. With one fork, Day can create several different pieces of jewelry. One piece of jewelry usually takes a minimum of an hour to create.

Because business has been picking up, Day hired Erica Luit as a full-time employee in May. Luit herself is a creative person and says working with Treasures With Heart is a dream job.

“For me, it is a dream come true. I almost want to cry. I love being creative; it’s what I do, but I’ve always had to conform and work in an office or elsewhere,” she said. “To be able to do something that I really, really love and to just flow from the core of who I am is truly a dream come true.”

Although Treasures With Heart does not currently have a building for costumers to see the jewelry on a daily basis, they are present every weekend at the Farmers Market in Coxheath. They also have a booth set up at the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion in Sydney during times when cruise ships dock throughout the summer. For more information about Treasures With Heart, visit facebook.com/treasureswithheart/